When Peace Was Met with Assassination: Dr. Ghassemlou at the Vienna Negotiations

 

On July 13, 1989, Dr. Ghassemlou was assassinated at the negotiation table in Vienna, Austria, during talks with representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran.[1] He had entered the negotiations in pursuit of a peaceful resolution to realize the Kurds’ aspiration for self-determination. In contrast, the Iranian regime’s representatives came to the table with a premeditated assassination plot.

Along with Dr. Ghassemlou, Abdullah Qaderi Azar, a member of the PDKI Central Committee, and Fazil Rassoul, a Kurdish academic who attended as a mediator, were assassinated.

The Iranian delegation consisted of three members: Mohammad-Jafar Sahraroudi, Mostafa Ajoudi, and Amir Mansour Bozorgian, all of whom were sent back to Tehran after Iran exerted severe diplomatic and economic pressure on Austria.

According to Carol Prunhuber, the writer of Dreaming Kurdistan: The Life and Death of Kurdish Leader Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou, Dr. Ghassemlou accepted negotiation offers from Iranian regime for different reasons. On the one hand, Ghassemlou believed that it was highly likely that the regime was genuinely seeking to end the civil war in Kurdistan less than a year after the end of their eight-year war with Iraq. This optimistic view was reinforced by two other events: the death of the regime’s leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, in June that year, followed by the presidential inauguration of Rafsanjani, known as a pragmatist who wanted to make the regime less hostile toward the West and to improve Iran’s relations with Arab countries. On the other hand, he understood that peace between Tehran and Baghdad would place Kurdish movements on both sides of the Iran–Iraq border under unprecedented pressure. From a pragmatic perspective, therefore, securing tangible gains for the movement through negotiations with Tehran would clearly serve Kurdish interests.

Moreover, it was logically sound for the regime to seek a genuine peaceful solution to Kurdistan’s national question. Not only were developments unfolding in the Soviet Union placing Dr. Ghassemlou’s party in a stronger position than other opposition groups, particularly the Communists, but he had also succeeded in opening a new diplomatic channel by securing an invitation to the United States.



[1] Jonathan Randal, After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? My Encounters with Kurdistan (London: Taylor & Francis, Kindle edition), 111

Excerpt: Ghassemlou, The Messenger of Peace, Dr. Ghassemlou’s Life and Legacy, pp.60-61



Read More :



Extrajudicial Assassination Under International Law: The Case of Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou




The Assassination of Dr. Ghassemlou and His Colleagues: 36 Years of Austria’s Complicity Through Silence, 36 Years of State Terrorism by the Islamic Republic — Kurdistan Press Agency